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MISSIONS  IN  MEXICO.! 


UNDER  THE  CARE  OF  THE 


KEY.  M.  WOOLSEY  STRYKER 


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HISTORICAL  SKETCH' 


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MISSIONS  IN  MEXICO, 


UNDER  THE  CARE  OF  THE 


BOARD  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  OF  THE 
PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


BY 


HEY.  M.  WOOL  SET  STRYKER. 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

.WOMAN’S  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY  OF  THE 
PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


No.  1334  Chestnut  Street,  Philadelphia. 
1881. 


Books  and  Articles  op  Reference. 

Article  in  tlic  British  Encyclopedia.  Haven’s  “Our  Next  Door  Neighbor.” 

Article  in  Johnson’s  Encyclopedia.  “ Our  Sister  Republic.”  A.  S.  Evans,  j 

Article  in  The  Century  Magazine,  Nov.,  1881.  “ Twenty  Years  among  the  Mexican 

Pascoe’s  “Indian  Tribes  of  Mexico.”  Rankin.  $1.25. 

Prescott’s  “ Conquest  of  Mexico.”  «•  1 


The  reader  who  would  trace  the  sway  of  the  Latin  Church  in  Mexico  is  referred  to 
and  compact  article  (pp.  453-456)  in  The  Foreign  Missionary  for  April,  1880,  the  rc-cto| 
of  which  is  forbidden  by  the  limits  of  this  paper. 

The  secular  press  contains  frequent  columns  and  paragraphs  relating  to  Mexico,  hig! 
to  those  who  read  with  a missionary  instinct. 


MISSIONS  IN  MEXICO. 


THE  COUNTRY. 

Mexico  is  at  our  doors.  Her  geography  makes  her  evangeliza- 
tion our  nearest  and  immediate  duty.  Our  very  safety  as  a Chris- 
tian state  (for  we  must  help  her  or  she  will  hinder  us)  dictates 
such  a gospel  application  of  the  “ Monroe  doctrine”  that  her  great 
uplands,  sure  to  be  the  highway  of  a railway  system,  may  be  the 
viaduct  of  pure  religion  in  its  southward  progress,  and  complete 
the  circuit  between  the  two  divisions  of  a continent  that  is  yet  to 
be  wholly  our  Lord’s ! The  Cordilleras  must  link  the  Andes  to 
the  Sierras  in  a chain  of  salvation  that  shall  witness  His  supreme 
conquest  whose  “ righteousness  is  like  the  great  mountains.” 

Mexico  rests  its  pyramidal  base  upon  our  frontier  along  1800 
miles,  being  the  southern  boundary  of  Texas,  New  Mexico,  Ari- 
zona, and  California.  Its  extreme  length  is  2000  miles,  and  its 
breadth  1100  miles.  Its  area  is  761,000  square  miles,  which 
would  contain  France  four  times,  New  England  eleven  times, 
New  York  sixteen  times.  It  is  as  wonderful  in  its  variety  of  con- 
figuration and  climate  as  in  its  resources  and  products.  The  land 
is  traversed  by  great  mountain  ranges,  part  of  that  tremendous  axis 
of  the  continent  which  threads  five  zones.  These  great  vertebrae, 
with  their  spurs,  overlook  vast  and  fertile  plateaus  lying,  at  the 
lowest,  some  3000  feet  above  the  sea.  A day's  journey  can  include 
a range  of  temperature  and  product  equivalent  to  that  compre- 
hended by  the  latitude  between  Cuba  and  Vermont.  The  climate 
is  as  mellow  and  lovely  as  Italy’s,  the  thermometer  having  a range 
through  the  year  of  little  more  than  fifty  degrees.  As  a landscape 
is  focalized  in  a Claude  Lorraine  glass,  so  in  Mexico  all  the  king- 
doms of  the  world  and  the  glory  of  them  are  blended.  The  flora 
is  magnificent  and  immensely  varied.  The  botanical  riches  surpass 
those  of  any  other  land  on  earth. 

Mexico  is  an  agricultural  cosmos.  Coffee,  one  of  the  chief 
exports,  in  quality  and  price  can  under-bid  the  plantations  of  Java 
and  Brazil.  The  manufacture  of  sugar  is  of  immense  proportions; 
the  cane  grows  uncultivated  to  the  height  of  twenty  feet.  It  is  au 
excellent  cotton  land.  Havana  is  glad  to  put  its  brands  upon 
Mexican  tobacco,  llice,  indigo,  cocoa,  caoutchouc,  dye-stuffs,  and 


4 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OP 


all  tropical  products-  flourish  in  the  lowlands ; while  upon  the  up- 
lands, and  within  a hundred  miles,  corn  and  wheat  can  rival  Illinois 
and  Minnesota.  Strawberries,  melons,  peaches,  with  all  the  gener- 
ous fruits  of  hot  climates,  are  prolific;  and  these  with  all  the 
vegetables  known  to  American  kitchens,  and  many  more  too  per- 
ishable for  commerce,  are  the  plentiful  and  cheap  staple  of  diet. 

Of  course  where  mountain  ranges  can  culminate  in  a superb  peak 
17,000  feet  high,  there  is  a great  exteut  of  sterile  and  untillable 
land ; but  the  fertile  valleys  and  upper  plains  yield  each  year  two 
bountiful  crops.  All  the  animals  of  the  tropics  and  of  the  tem- 
perate zone  are  here,  the  northern  portions  of  the  country  furnish- 
ing great  facilities  for  herds  and  flocks.  The  western  coast  has 
pearl  fisheries,  and  Yucatan  yields  amber.  Timbers  of  great  value 
are  to  be  an  increasing  revenue  of  the  future. 

The  underground  wealth  of  this  favored  land  is  past  estimate. 
Nearly  one-half  the  precious  metal  in  man’s  possession  has  been 
dug  here.  Gold  is  as  abundant  as  in  Colorado  and  California, 

“ To  make,  to  ruin,  to  curse,  to  bless,” 

as  lust  shall  serve  or  use  master  it.  The  silver  is  illimitable  and 
forms  the  chief  mintage.  There  is  copper  enough  to  bring  down 
the  market  price  one-half.  Platinum,  lead,  tin,  zinc,  antimony, 
nickel,  and  cinnabar,  are  variously  abundant. 

No  blast  furnace  has  yet  been  built  in  Mexico,  but  there  are 
mountains  of  iron,  and  provinces  with  the  ore  atop  the  earth  by  the 
million  tons.  Coal  is  constantly  discovering,  the  arsenal  of  a pos- 
sible manufacture  that  could  furnish  with  material  the  skilled  labor 
of  the  planet.  What  will  Mexico  not  be  when  forge  and  mill  shall 
supersede  petty  industries  and  mere  hand-labor  ? The  quarries  of 
Mexico,  yet  undug,  are  of  certain  importance.  Her  mineral  won- 
ders are  so  far  but  specimens  of  what  enterprise  shall  find  and  fur- 
nish. The  laboratories  of  nature  are  still  producing  sulphur  and 
the  chemicals  of  the  arts. 

As  yet,  only  the  crudest  labor,  the  most  primitive  implements, 
the  least  ingenuity,  have  approached  these  varied  and  gigantic  treas- 
ures; skill,  sagacity,  scientific  mechanics,  all  backed  by  capital, 
must  soon  unlock  these  coffers  of  the  ages.  I The  mere  resources 
of  this  romantic  land  are  by  no  means  the  foremost  warrant  for 
the  Church  to  act,  and  act  now.  “ There  is  no  difference;”  human 
sin,  shame,  sorrow,  and  eternal  jeopardy,  and  Christ’s  sufficiency 
for  these,  are  our  motives.  But,  nevertheless,  this  vast  potential 
wealth  and  this  dawning  future  are  the  basis  of  an  argument  for 
immediate  advance.  When  this  nation,  second  upon  the  continent 
only  to  our  own  iu  populousness  and  wealth,  is  wakening  to  power, 
let  us  see  that  she  wakens  to  righteousness.  Her  future  must  ally 


THE  MISSIONS  IN  MEXICO. 


5 


with  ours J With  a coast  line  of  6000  miles,  Mexico  has  no  com- 
mercial rivers,  and  scarcely  one  decent  harbor.  The  tides  of  her 
traffic  must  flow  to  the  ports  of  the  United  States,  nearer  or  re- 
moter. We  must  be  her  first  and  chief  market.  Already  the 
sagacity  of  our  capital  is  peering  thither.  We  are  to  build  the 
railways  and  furnish  the  facilities  for  export  that  must  quicken 
production  and  give  it  ample  outlet.  Notwithstanding  the  cost  of 
engineering,  by  reason  of  the  obstinate  irregularity  of  the  land, 
the  prize  constantly  bids  higher.  By  withes  of  iron,  by  the  links 
of  common  interest,  by  the  steady  onset  of  social  forces,  Mexico’s 
future  is  to  be  more  and  more  identified  with  our  own.  For  once, 
then,  let  the  children  of  light  be  wise  in  their  generation, — of 
their  mammon  make  eternal  friends, — enter  an  alliance  under  the 
true  cross, — outrun  even  the  shrewdness  of  investors, — and  in  the 
simplicity  of  Christ  carry  the  irresistible  plea  over  the  borders. 
If  engineering  can  span  chasms  that  seemed  a fixed  barrier,  and 
chisel  all  impediments  to  the  level  of  its  purpose,  shall  the  pioneers 
of  the  gospel,  with  all  its  guarantees  of  civilization,  domestic  purity, 
and  personal  dignity  before  God,  be  less  ardent,  resolute,  and  suc- 
cessful ? While  financiers  turn  to  Mexico  to  bring  it  to  the  market, 
let  us  outsee  even  their  sagacity,  and  outdo  their  zeal,  and  bring 
Mexico  to  that  which  is  “ without  price.” 

“Ye  valleys,  rise,  and  sink,  ye  kills, 

Prepare  the  Lord  His  way !” 

The  Mexicans  are  fully  awakening  to  the  importance  of  continu- 
ous communication  with  the  United  States;  let  us  waken  them  to 
“ approve  the  things  that  are  more  excellent.” 

THE  PEOPLE. 

The  population  numbers  about  ten  millions.  There  are  eighteen 
cities  having  upwards  of  20,000  people.  Only  about  one  million 
hold  property  of  any  kind.  About  one  million  are  of  clear  European 
blood;  five  millions  of  pure  Indian  descent;  and  the  remainder 
are  a mixed  race,  with  all  the  variously  blended  traits,  good  and 
bad,  of  a conglomerate  ancestry. 

The  direct  natives  have  a lineage  of  centuries.  The  Toltccs 
came  in  from  the  north  about  1000  years  ago.  The  Aztecs,  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  made  conquest  of  all  their  predecessors, 
subordinating  into  one  domain  the  tribes  from  the  Gulf  to  the 
Pacific.  Many,  however,  of  those  subdued  tribes  still  retain  their 
separate  identity,  and  their  peculiarities  of  dialect  and  custom, 
notably  in  Michoacan  and  Yucatan.  The  aborigines  of  Mexico 
were  vigorous  and  warlike;  and  their  descendants,  while  showing 
no  diminution  in  numbers  (of  late  years  they  have  increased  more 


6 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF 


than  the  Creoles  and  Spaniards),  still  maintain  many  of  their  early 
traits.  They  constitute  (strangely  to  our  notions  of  the  Indian) 
the  agricultural  element  of  the  country,  and,  considering  the  lati- 
tude, are  industrious  and  thrifty,  not  lacking  in  virile  qualities, 
though  touchingly  subdued  in  mien  and  tone  by  the  long  years  of 
subjugation.  The  Aztecs,  as  the  Normans  in  England,  and  more 
recently  the  Tartar  dynasty  in  China,  took  on  the  civilization  they 
overran. 

Dr.  Ellinwood  has  happily  compared  them  to  the  Yenetians,  in 
their  strongholds  rescued  from  the  waters,  and  gradually  fortified 
until  they  became  not  only  invincible  but  supreme.  Their  refuge 
upon  Lake  Tezcuco  had  become,  at  the  Spanish  inroad,  a city  of 
300,000  inhabitants.  Their  history  is  romantic  and  wonderful. 
They  attained  a high  cultivation.  They  had  a noble  architecture, 
and  were  skillful  in  arts  ; they  made  advances  in  poetry  and  astron- 
omy; were  ingenious,  aesthetic,  ornate  in  decoration,  chivalric 
to  their  women.  They  had  much  that  reminds  now  of  Egypt 
and  now  of  France.  The  syllables  of  their  ancient  language  are  still 
their  living  tongue.  The  City  of  Mexico  contains  not  a few  noble 
and  influential  men,  whose  hearts  beat  with  the  unadulterated  blood 
of  an  ancestry  as  old  as  Charlemagne.  The  chief  lady  of  honor 
to  “poor  Carlotta”  was  a lineal  descendant  of  Montezuma.  Such 
vital  pertinacity,  and  through  such  a history,  reveals  integral  char- 
acteristics which,  sanctified  under  the  final  and  all-blessing  con- 
quest of  the  Galilean,  may  yet  resume  all  their  ancient  dignity. 

. The  New  Testament  has  been  printed  in  the  original  Aztec. 

The  Aztec  religion  was  as  prolific  in  gods  as  that  of  Greece  or 
Rome.  They  held  one  supreme  ruler,  like  the  ancient  Jove,  and  a 
whole  pantheon  of  deified  human  impulses  and  passions.  Temples 
were  numerous,  and  the  hierarchy  many  and  strong.  Cannibalism 
was  a religious  rite.  In  the  Museum  of  the  City  of  Mexico  there 
may  be  seen  to-day  a gigantic  circular  block  of  red  porphyry 
which  once  was  the  apex  of  the  pyramidal  temple  that  towered 
in  high  view  above  all  the  homes  of  the  capital.  It  was  the  great 
sacrificial  stone  of  the  bloodiest  rite  on  earth.  It  is  estimated  that 
annually  20,000  war-prisoners  were  slain  upon  it.  Its  side  is 
horrible  with  the  sculpture  of  cruelties.  Polluted  by  the  dripping 
hearts  of  myriad  victims,  this  Moloch  altar  testifies  the  inherent 
impotence,  even  of  noble  qualities  and  an  otherwise  high  civiliza- 
tion, to  redeem  an  unguided  people,  their  sin-blurred  instincts  un- 
helped, from  the  inhumanity  of  a humanity  ignorant  of  God’s  mercy, 
and  learning  its  only  lessons  from  the  clash  of  matter  and  force. 

Ah,  what  a Macedonian  cry,  from  such  a land,  sounds  into  the 
drowsy  ears  of  a lukewarm  Church  to  come  and  help,  that,  purged 
of  its  past,  a redeemed  national  life  may  bear  the  glory  of  the  rclig- 


THE  MISSIONS  IN  MEXICO. 


7 


ion  of  Jesus  Christ! — that  no  Romish  compromise  between  this 
butcher-block  and  the  undefiled  gospel  may,  with  priestcraft,  and 
empty  rite,  and  red  hands,  hinder  the  free  course  of  eternal  love ! 
— that  all  mere  ritual  may  yield  to  righteousness,  and  Mexico,  in 
the  power  of  Immanuel,  become  a happy  people  whose  God  is  the 
Lord ! 

It  is  not  to  be  thought  that  labor  among  the  Indians  or  native 
Mexicans  will  find  everything  ready.  Upon  all  their  original  qual- 
ities they  bear  the  hoof-marks  of  conquest  and  long  abuse.  Their 
clan  feeling  has  been  intensified  by  ages  of  hateful  serfhood ; their 
native  brightness,  simplicity,  and  accessibility  scorched  and  with- 
ered under  long  repression  and  abuse.  The  policy  of  their  papal 
conquerors  has  been  evermore  to  keep  them  down  and  under. 
Ignorance  has  been  their  degradation,  and  to-day  but  one-eighth  of 
the  population  of  Mexico  can  read.  The  Bible  is  unheeded,  for  it 
is  almost  entirely  unknown.  A dissolute,  carousing,  gambling, 
drunken  priesthood  have  been  their  only  preceptors.  The  convents 
have  been  nests  of  licentious  idlers — their  god  their  belly.  Under 
the  extortionate  demands  of  the  padres,  marriage  has  been  widely 
superseded  by  concubinage.  The  name  of  Jesus  has  become  iden- 
tified with  Jesuitry,  and  the  gospel  has  been  gall^  The  moral  reac- 
tion of  all  this  has  been  terrible,  indeed,  upon  the  master  race ; but 
while  the  Spaniard  has  relapsed  into  universal  indiffcreuce — practi- 
cal atheism — the  Indian’s  soul  has  fed  on  grudges.  Resent- 
ment has  not  been  less  deep  because  impotent.  The  prejudices 
of  power,  crushing  its  victims  under  a rigid  caste  spirit,  have 
but  compacted  their  heredity  of  estrangement.  Such  work  does 
Rome  when  unmolested  ! She  transmuted  much,  but  regener- 
ated nothing. 

The  “ hacienda”  system  of  peonage  has  been  another  factor  of 
tyranny,  parcel  to  the  whole  spirit  of  the  usurpers  of  this  land.  It 
is  feudality  with  none  of  its  merits.  The  proprietors  of  vast  sec- 
tions rule  their  helpless  tenants  under  a remorseless  despotism — 
ejecting  upon  caprice,  oppressing  everywhere.  The  laborer  is  prac- 
tically a slave  without  recourse— -and  worse  than  a slave ; for  mere 
base  interest  leads  slavers  to  care  somewhat  for  their  chattels. 
This  blighting  system  is  chiefly  responsible  for  the  shifts  of  desper- 
ate and  famined  wretches,  for  brigandage,  outrage,  and  wide  con- 
tempt for  a rule  that  has  no  mercy,  and  a law  that  is  without  justice. 
Linder  such  cumulative  and  traditional  wrongs,  the  common  people 
at  large,  and  of  all  shades  of  race,  are  bitterly  poor,  and  universally 
demoralized.  No  wonder  that  Mexico,  with  a society  so  consti- 
tuted— the  few  pampered  and  debilitated,  the  many  impoverished — 
can  show  so  little  in  manufacture  and  commerce,  and  literature  and 
the  arts.  Her  imports  (though,  to  be  sure,  under  a tariff  almost 


8 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF 


restrictive)  are  only  about  thirty  millions  annually,  as  (for  com- 
parative instance)  against  an  average  of  six  hundred  millions  in  the 
United  States.  All  this,  Saxon  justice  and  a Christian  civilization 
must  change — invigorating,  encouraging,  uplifting.  Mexico  must 
be  “ born  again,”  and  nursed  at  the  breast  of  freedom. 

While,  with  ourselves,  sturdy  Englishmen,  and  keen  Frenchmen, 
and,  notably,  thrifty  Germans,  are  turning  toward  these  boundless 
and  undeveloped  resources,  and  bringing  with  them  a leaven  of  new 
commercial  vigor,  the  people  must  be  changed  at  deeper  springs. 
Already  the  shafts  of  dawn  are  piercing  the  superstitions  of  the 
past,  and  the  sword  of  the  Word  is  spilling  the  soul  of  tyranny. 
The  gospel,  ardent,  bold,  aggressive,  the  only  true  and  abiding  phi- 
lanthropy, must  unhinge  the  gates  of  hell  and  bear  them  away  to 
the  very  crest  of  Orizaba.  For  “ everything  shall  live  whitherso- 
ever the  rivers  shall  come  ” ! 

Spite  of  all  perversions  and  repressions  the  human  conscience  is 
ever  the  prepared  soil  of  the  gospel  seed ; and  the  Indian  commu- 
nities of  Mexico  show  already  not  only  a surprising  teachableness, 
but  a profound  zeal  to  hear  the  Word  of  life,  eagerly  receiving  the 
preached  and  printed  message,  and  often  at  great  self-sacrifices. 

THE  POLITICAL  HISTORY. 

The  Spaniard,  Hernando  Cortez,  conquered  Mexico  1519—21. 
For  300  years  viceroys  ruled — not  for  Mexico,  but  for  Spain. 
Cruel  governors  vied  in  extortion  with  greedy  bishops.  The 
i’opish  Church  gradually  impoverished  the  land  with  mortgages 
that  covered  fully  a third  of  all  the  real  property.  The  vicarage 
of  cupidity  and  lust  ate  as  a cancer.  The  greedy  tyranny  crushed 
all  the  germs  alike  of  religious  and  civil  liberty.  The  truth  that 
makes  free,  the  magma  charta  of  all  manhood,  the  high  code  of  per- 
sonal obedience  and  duty,  was  a thing  sealed  and  lost.  But  this 
rule  of  baptized  robbers  could  not  last  forever,  nor  bar  out  with  the 
abuses  of  the  dark  ages  the  “ Light  of  the  world.” 

When  Napoleon  broke  the  sceptre  of  Castile,  in  1808,  Mexico 
began  to  breathe — yet  stcrtorously,  as  one  rescued  from  drowning. 
Miguel  Hidalgo,  albeit  a priest,  a noble  patriot,  struck  the  first  real 
blow  for  liberty  in  1810.  He  struck  stoutly,  but  was  overcome, 
tried,  and  shot.  What  of  that ! The  undying  fire  was  lighted  at 
last.  The  seed,  wet  with  such  blood,  sprang  up  everywhere.  In  the 
years  from  1821  to  1828  the  whole  chain  of  her  American  depend- 
encies flung  off  the  yoke  of  Spain.  Mexico,  under  Iturbide,  de- 
clared herself  free  in  1821,  and  began  the  republic  in  1824. 
Medievalism  was  not,  however,  to  be  uprooted  in  a day.  “ Since 
the  first  declaration  of  independence  there  have  been  at  least  sixty 
revolutions.  These  have  been  attributed  to  the  ambition  of  mili- 


THE  MISSIONS  IN  MEXICO. 


9 


tary  leaders,  to  restlessness  among  the  people,  to  a love  of  plunder, 
and  to  a lack  of  appreciation  of  the  majesty  of  law  and  good  order; 
but  the  truth  is,  says  one  who  knows  the  Mexican  well,  and  who 
has  lived  a long  time  in  the  country,  ‘ These  frequent  wars  are  but 
outbreaks  of  unceasing  struggle  between  sacerdotalism  and  the  de- 
sire for  liberal  institutions.’  With  some  of  these  insurrections  the 
priests  have  had  much  to  do,  as  by  them  they  hoped  to  regain  their 
lost  power  and  influence,  aud  enjoy  the  propei'ty  which  had  been 
wrested  from  them.  Other  revolutions  have  been  occasioned  by 
disappointed  political  or  military  leaders,  who  have  been  willing  to 
sacrifice  the  good  of  others  to  their  own  personal  ambition  ; but  the 
real  cause  is  the  lack  of  true  religious  principle,  in  rulers  and 
people,  which  principle  gives  fixedness  to  government  and  law.” 

Not  all  at  once  can  a people,  long  brutalized,  attain  self-govern- 
ment in  liberty  under  law.  The  bloody  oscillations  of  this  history, 
like  that  of  France,  lay  part  of  their  horrors  at  the  guilty  door  of 
those  who  had  so  wrought  evil. 

J The  Jesuit  mildew  still  gathered  foul  and  thick  upon  the  efforts 
toward  constitutionalism.  “ In  all  the  Spanish  states  it  has  taken 
half  a century  to  learn  that  republicanism  and  Romanism  are  from 
their  very  nature  in  universal  and  eternal  conflict;  that  the  one 
encourages  the  enlightenment  and  free  thought  of  the  people,  and 
cannot  exist  otherwise ; while  the  other  must  live  by  authority  and 
repression.” 

The  story  of  Santa  Anna  ; his  coup  d'etat ; the  revolt  of  Texas; 
the  Mexico- American  war ; the  saving  to  freedom  our  present  south- 
west out  of  the  bony  clutch  of  “ Giant  Pope;”  the  ultimate  com- 
prehension of  California; — all  these  are  threads  interwoven  with 
the  providence  of  God  toward  ourselves, — a chapter  written  in  His 
undeniable  hand.  Our  thoughts  were  not  without  evil,  but  they 
were  not  God’s  thoughts.  He  “ meant  it  for  good,  to  bring  it  to 
pass  to  save  much  people.” 

If  not  altogether  clear  of  guilty  greed  and  an  unnamed  purpose, 
the  bayonets  of  the  United  States  poured  over  the  borders  to  the 
bloody  work  of  Buena  Vista  and  Monterey;  nevertheless,  there 
went  in  many  an  American  knapsack  A book,  the  leaves  of  which 
are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations  ! In  the  awful  furrows  of  war 
was  sowed,  here  and  there,  the  Word  of  life ; the  Word  that 
“brings  light;”  that  tells  of  peace  to  man  and  glory  to  the  High- 
est, aud  that  “ the  garments  of  the  warrior  and  the  boots  of  battle 
shall  be  fuel  of  fire  ” ! 

j The  enslavement  of  Romanism  was  renounced  in  1857  under 
Juarez;  but  for  ten  years  yet  it  clung  to  the  throat  of  Mexico. 
Not  until  1867  was  the  liberal  republic  finally  triumphant  over  the 
priestly  reactionaries.  I 


10 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF 


The  events  in  which  discord  yielded  to  the  more  stable  govern- 
ment of  the  present  are  the  things  of  but  yesterday.  Another 
Bonaparte  was  again  to  be  the  unintentional  minister  of  Him  who 
restrains  all  men  to  His  final  purpose,  and  turns  their  wrath  to  a 
doxology. 

The  appeal  of  Miramon  and  the  ecclesiasties  to  Louis  Napoleon; 
the  French  usurpation  of  1862;  the  imposition  as  emperor  of 
Maximilian  (more  sinned  against  than  sinning,  and  worthy,  alas ! 
of  a better  end);  when  our  hour  had  come,  the  stern  remoustrance 
of  Seward  to  the  French  empire;  the  withdrawal  of  their  arms; 
the  desperate  appeal  and  piteous  madness  of  the  beautiful  Carlotta, — 
all  these  are  written  in  the  memory  of  this  generation. 

“ These  Buonapartes,  we  know  their  bees, 

That  wade  in  honey  red  to  the  knees  !” 

He  sleeps  who  wrought  this  folly,  whose  life  was  treachery,  glit- 
ter, and  fiasco.  No  marplot  heir  of  that  fated  line  shall  rise  to  lay 
rash  hand  again,  in  the  name  of  “ destiny,”  upon  the  web  of  God. 
France  and  Mexico  are  free,  and  Toussaint  l’Ouverture  is  avenged  at 
last  in  Juarez. 

Let  us  listen  for  a moment  to  Dr.  Ellinwood  : “ The  republic, 

which  for  ten  years  had  existed  almost  in  the  person  of  a single 
man — Benito  Juarez— had  returned  from  its  exile  at  El  Paso  to 
San  Luis  Potosi,  and  it  became  apparent  that  the  final  conflict  would 
centre  at  Queretaro,  half  way  between  the  latter  place  and  the 
capital. 

“ Pardon  a single  glance  at  this  remarkable  man  J uarez.  A pure- 
blooded  Indian,  born  in  the  mountains  of  Oaxaca,  he  had  risen  to 
power  by  his  acknowledged  genius.  When  Comonfort  betrayed 
the  republic  to  the  reactionists  in  1857,  Juarez  maintained  the 
liberal  cause  till  the  next  election,  when  he  was  chosen  president. 
During  all  the  years  of  the  struggle  with  France  this  man,  with  a 
cabinet  composed  of  Lcrdo,  Iglcsias,  and  Mareshal,  and  with  Senor 
llomero  as  his  minister  at  Washington,  kept  alive  the  cause  of  lib- 
erty among  the  people.  Even  when  they  were  driven  to  El  Paso  on 
the  northern  border  they  still  held  their  organization  as  president 
and  cabinet  of  the  republic,  and  sending  letters  through  the 
United  States  to  friends  in  all  lands,  they  assured  them  that 
their  republican  cause  was  not  dead,  but  would  certainly  triumph. 

“ Their  sublime  faith  and  devotion  doubtless  had  great  influence 
in  shaping  our  policy  at  Washington  and  in  creating  a reactionary 
sentiment  against  the  empire  even  in  Europe. 

“ The  spring  of  1867  brought  the  beginning  of  the  end.  Maxi- 
milian’s chief  forces,  with  himself  among  them,  were  at  Queretaro 
under  siege.  In  an  attempt  to  escape  he  was  betrayed  by  one  of 


THE  MISSIONS  IN  MEXICO. 


11 


his  generals,  placed  under  arrest,  tried  by  a military  tribunal,  and, 
with  Generals  Miramon  and  Mexia,  was  sentenced  and  shot. 

“ In  the  trying  scenes  which  followed,  the  character  of  our  typical 
Indian  president  was  well  illustrated.  Efforts  were  made  by  our 
government  and  by  the  European  consuls  to  secure  a change  of 
sentence ; and  when  the  wife  of  a prince  belonging  to  Maximil- 
ian’s staff  threw  herself  at  the  president’s  feet  and  clung  to  his 
knees  as  she  poured  out  her  entreaties,  he  wept  in  sympathy  while 
he  declared  himself  powerless  as  a mere  executive  under  the  behests 
of  the  law. 

“ It  is  a strange  spectacle,  a European  princess  at  the  feet  of  an 
Indian  patriot  pleading  for  the  life  of  an  emperor,  and  both  weep- 
ing as  the  solemn  fiat  is  uttered.  And  this  is  the  man — this  Amer- 
ican Indian — this  is  the  man  who  for  ten  years  of  hard  struggles 
had  carried  a republic  in  his  head  and  heart,  and  who  both  before 
and  after  that  solemn  hour  did  more  than  any  other  to  restore  or- 
der to  his  distracted  country.  When,  in  a public  reception,  a cap- 
tured French  tri-color  was  spread  for  him  to  walk  upon,  he  stepped 
aside.  ‘No,’  he  said,  ‘the  French  are  not  our  enemies,  it  is  only 
their  emperor.  The  French  are  our  friends,  and,  depend  upon  it, 
that  flag  will  yet  wave  over  a republic.’  A prophecy  which 
Juarez  lived  to  see  fulfilled.” 

Juarez,  this  master  spirit,  died  in  1872,  and  was  succeeded  in  the 
presidency  by  Lerdo  de  Tejada. 


Mexico  is  a republic  comprising  27  states,  besides  Lower  Cali- 
fornia and  the  federal  district.  The  capital  has  a population  of 
about  250,000.  Her  political  system  is  chiefly  borrowed  from  our 
own,  and  is  nearly  its  counterpart.  The  president  is  elected  for  four 
years.  The  senate  has  56  members  chosen  for  six  years.  The 
house  of  deputies  331  members  whose  term  is  two  years.  The 
chief  justice,  elected  for  six  years,  is  vice-president  ex-officio. 
Each  state  has  its  local  constitution,  with  elective  governor  and 
legislature.  The  army  comprises  21,136  men.  The  navy  is  nom- 
inal, and  has  only  four  insignificant  gunboats.  There  are  not  300 
miles  of  railway,  and  staging  is  the  public  conveyance.  There  are 
about  7000  miles  of  telegraph,  as  compared  with  about  110,000  in 
the  United  States.  Mexico  contains  12  inhabitants  to  the  square 
mile,  as  against  14  in  the  United  States.  The  relative  areas  of  the 
two  countries  are  as  one  to  five. 

As  democrats,  we  should  have  a generous  sympathy  in  Mexico’s 
progress  toward  a government  “ of,  by,  and  for  the  people,”  hailing 
their  enlightenment  and  release  from  all  that  menaces  their  advance. 

As  Christians,  wo  should  seek  that  “ the  Son  shall  make  them 


12 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF 


free  indeed.”  Let  Mexico  keep  lier  own  eagle,  but  exchange  the 
v cactus  for  the  olive. 

As  patriots,  it  behooves  us  to  recognize  that,  in  any  future  strug- 
gle that  may  come  for  material  liberty,  and  in  the  struggles  that 
must  come  for  the  truth,  we  must  be  strengthened  by  their  moral 
alliance,  or  hindered  by  their  spiritual  alienation.  “ By  liberal 
things  shall  we  stand.”  “ The  commonwealth  of  man,”  if  it  ever 
be,  can  be  only  in  the  triumph  of  deep  righteousness;  and  if  this 
hemisphere  of  republics  is  to  share  and  lead  in  that,  it  must  be  by 
the  emancipation  of  the  individual  conscience,  and  the  disenthrall- 
ment  of  the  masses  from  the  unreason  and  worldly  outwardness 
which  is  ever  the  chief  fulcrum  of  apostacy. 

The  new  moral  earnestness  in  Mexico  is  a strong  reason  to  hope 
that  stability  will  replace  the  old  chaos.  By  state  decree,  on  the 
/ 25th  of  September,  1873,  the  Church  and  State  were  separated  and 
congress  precluded  from  passing  any  laws  to  prohibit  or  to  establish 
any  religion;  marriage  was  made  a civil  contract;  slavery  was 
abolished;  the  aggrandizements  of  the  monastic  orders  were  nation- 
alized in  behalf  of  public  education ; the  property  of  religious 
establishments  was  limited  by  law  as  to  its  acquisition  and  amount. 
Public  instruction  received  a mighty  impulse,  and  is  still  rapidly 
advancing. 

“ According  to  the  government  report  of  1875,  there  were  then 
in  Mexico  the  following  primary  schools : — Sustained  by  the  federal 
government,  G03 ; under  the  care  and  support  of  municipalities, 
5240;  supported  by  associations  or  individuals,  378;  under  the 
care  of  the  Koman  clergy,  117;  private  schools  of  various  kinds, 
1581;  those  without  classification,  184.  Total,  8103.  In  com- 
parison with  the  population,  Mexico  has  one  school  for  each  1110 
of  the  inhabitants,  which  is  a better  proportion  than  is  shown  by 
Austria,  Brazil,  Chili,  Greece,  Portugal,  or  the  Argentine  Republic. 
The  number  of  children  reported  as  actually  receiving  instruction 
in  the  above  named  schools  is  1,632,436.  Measures  have  been 
proposed  for  the  formation  of  normal  schools  in  each  of  the  states, 
tor  the  training  of  teachers.  There  are  several  so-called  colleges  iu 
the  republic,  though  very  few  have  reached  a high  grade.” 

All  this  the  Roman  bishops  have  met  with  proscriptive  anath- 
emas and  with  incitements  to  violence ; but  so  much  the  more  has 
the  cause  gone  forward.  If  the  ecclesiastics  are  venomous,  the  au- 
thorities are  determined. 

y The  profound  reaction  and  resentment  toward  Romanism  is  the 
key-note  of  the  present  hour;  but  in  the  flux  and  transition  all 
religion  is  menaced  by  an  oscillation  toward  the  baldest  negativism. 
Superstition  has  so  “ overbuilt”  the  foundations  as  to  be  apparently 
identical  with  them ; the  poisonous  ivy  has  loosened  the  walls  of 


THE  MISSIONS  IN  MEXICO. 


13 


the  Church.  What  is  really  Christian  has  been  so  misrepresented 
as  to  make  men  suspicious.  So  does  hypocrisy  ever  disgust  from 
the  very  truth  it  caricatures.  So  did  France,  for  its  bitter  associa- 
tions, attempt  to  wipe  out  all  vestige  of  Christianity.  So  did  J apan, 
early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  rise  to  extirpate  the  last  remnant 
of  what,  as  Jesuits  had  taught  it,  was  not  strangely  called  “ Jashiu 
mon  ” — “ the  corrupt  sect.”  (See  The  Mikado's  Empire , chap, 
xxv.) 

Secularism,  the  danger  of  this  age,  must  be  boldly  faced,  for  if 
the  tyranny  of  hierarchs  is  exchanged  only  for  the  self-rule  of  infi- 
delity, the  last  state  of  Mexico  will  be  worse  than  the  first,  and 
anarchy  will  return.  Superstition  is  no  worse  enemy  to  man  than 
modern  nescience  and  material  epicureanism ; both  can  persecute 
or  seduce ; and  so,  on  right  hand  and  left  hand  the  onset  of  the  forces 
of  damnation  must  be  met.  The  Christian  panoply,  sword,  helmet, 
breastplate,  shield,  sandals,  rtust  be  furnished  the  converted  people. 
Peace  must  be  a garden,  m t a desert ; and  so,  soon  and  wide,  the 
seeds  of  truth,  “ whose  life  is  iu  themselves,”  must  be  sowed  in  the 
wake  of  God’s  plowing.  We  must  conquer  by  replacing.  With 
tender,  eager,  sedulous  care,  while  we  denounce  Rome’s  sorcery,  we  T 
must  lift  up  those  whom  her  bewitchments,  in  their  flight,  have 
left  upon  the  ground. 

This  rule  must  not  yield  to  unrule  nor  self-rule,  but  to  the  sover- 
eignty of  Christ.  JchovaJi-nissi,  Jchovah-lsidkenu,  Jehovah-jireh , 
Jehovali-shalom — these  must  be  the  new  watchwords  of  Mexico’s 
regeneration.  In  the  words  of  one  of  her  recent  martyrs — “ Let 
Jesus  reign  !” 

The  nascent  and  infant  Church  must  be  established  in  such  truth 
as  that  of  1 Peter  iii.  13-18.  Thus  is  set  open  a great  effectual 
door,  and  (as  always)  there  are  many  adversaries.  Communism  is 
afloat,  insidious — deadly.  Spiritism  is  doing  its  subterranean  work. 
Mormonism  is  even  now  crawling  thitherward  to  weave  its  cater- 
pillar nests.  The  advance  must  be  toilsome,  and  according  to  our 
faithfulness,  oh,  fellow  Christians  ! One  Carmel  is  not  all ; Jezebel 
is  still  alive;  and  unless  we  take  lessons  from  the  God  of  Elijah, 
our  sudden  gain  will  have  bitter  reaction.  Not  in  straight  lines, 
but  in  spirals,  returning  continually  upon  themselves  while  really 
moving  on  and  upward,  does  the  kingdom  come.  The  new  impetus 
is  not  yet  victory,  but  only  opportunity.  The  acceptable  time  de- 
mands also  an  accepting  Church.  The  eloquent  occasion  speaks  in 
vain  if  it  speaks  to  sleepy  ears. 

Our  ranks  are  armed  and  furnished,  and  down  the  line  thunders 
the  Leader’s  word — “ charge  !”  but  unless  we  obey  orders  we  are 
undone  and  defeated,  and  other  forces  must  carry  the  heights ! 
Brave  men  for  brave  occasions : a narcotized  and  stupid  army,  even 


14 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF 


though  the  cross  be  its  banner,  shall  be  smitten  with  blindness, 
apoplexy,  and  many  sorrows  ! “ Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel 

that  they  go  forward.”  “ There  remaineth  yet  very  much  land  to 
be  possessed.” 

EVANGELICAL  PROGRESS. 

It  remains  to  summarize  the  work  already  undertaken  toward 
fully  offering  to  Mexico  that  mercy  of  God  in  Christ  which  is  for 
all  people. 

(a)  Since  John  Calvin  sent  his  mission  to  the  Brazils,  since 
Coligny  fostered  the  Huguenot  colonization  in  Florida,  the  Pres- 
byterian branch  of  the  Church  of  Christ  has  been  in  the  van  of 
mission  enterprise,  with  means  and  men 

The  Bible,  as  we  have  seen,  found  its  way  into  Mexico  with  our 
armies  in  1847,  and  the  seed  sown  even  upon  the  floods  of  strife 
have  been  found  now  after  these  many  years. 

Be  it  remembered  that  the  first  actual  work  was  done  by  that  apos- 
tolic woman,  Miss  Melinda  Rankin.  Her  simple  story,  Twenty  Years 
in  Mexico , is  a prominent  chapter  in  that  Providence  which  so  won- 
derfully chooses  the  weak  things  (yis  this  world  reckons)  to  confound 
the  things  that  are  mighty.  This  single-handed  heroine,  strong  in 
faith,  was  the  pioneer  of  the  unalloyed  simplicity  of  Christ.  Her 
story  should  be  carefully  read.*  Miss  Rankin’s  first  approaches 
were  made  in  1854,  in  the  border  town  of  Brownsville,  Texas. 
There  she  secured  a,  seminary  which  was  maintained  until  the  era 
of  our  civil  war.  The  revolution  of  1857,  proclaiming  religious 
liberty,  opened  Mexico  to  Protestant  laborers.  In  1860,  Mr. 
Thompson,  the  first  ageut  of  the  American  Bible  Society,  began 
work  at  Matamoras.  Thither  Miss  Rankin  crossed  in  1864,  and 
in  18G5,  by  her  own  plea  and  presence,  raised,  in  the  United  States, 
§1500  to  forward  her  work  through  native  colporteurs,  whom  she 
herself  trained  and  sent  out. 

Her  work  at  Monterey  began  in  1866,  and  was  the  means  to 
direct  the  Rev.  II.  C.  Riley  (of  whom  presently)  toward  this  field  in 
1869,  and  of  hastening  the  sympathies  and  efforts  of  our  own  Church. 
In  1872  our  General  Assembly  took  action,  and  on  September  23d 
of  that  year  our  first  band  sailed  from  New  York — the  Rev.  Messrs. 
Pitkin,  Thomson.  Phillips,  and  Hutchinson,  with  their  wives  and 
Miss  Ellen  P.  Allen.  They  went  directly  to  the  capital.  There 
they  found  a large  body  of  believers,  of  anti-prelatical  convictions, 
embracing  some  nine  congregations,  who  at  once  accepted  their 

The  writer  of  this  would  most  earnestly  urge  that  every  church  should  own 
a living  and  growing  collection  of  missionary  books,  accessible  to  the  congre- 
gation, the  sure  seed  of  an  increasing  intelligence  and  zeal  in  the  fast-reviving 
devotion  to  the  missionary  commandments  of  our  Lord. 


THE  MISSIONS  IN  MEXICO. 


15 


guidance;  and  definite  Protestant  form  was  given  to  what  had  been 
so  far  miscellaneous.  Organization  began.  Method  and  cohe- 
rency were  established.  Regular  church  life  was  instituted,  with 
ordinances  administered  scripturally,  and  the  sacraments  restricted 
to  such  as  made  personal  confession. 

In  a belt  across  the  laud,  from  Vera  Cruz  to  Acapulco,  at  least 
thirty  congregations  have  now  connection  with  our  work,  the  City 
of  Mexico  being  a centre.  The  education  of  a native  ministry  was 
at  once  undertaken.  A popular  hymn-book  was  prepared,  which 
has  since  been  adopted  by  many  of  the  other  branches  of  the  Church 
in  Mexico.  Schools  for  girls  and  young  men  were  organized. 
Unwelcome  controversy  was,  from  the  first,  forced  upon  our  mis- 
sionaries. They  had  to  defend  the  full  and  free  gospel  against 
Romish  accusations;  against  free  thinkers,  so  called  (see  2 Peter 
ii.  17—19);  against  gross  “spiritism”  (carnalism,  rather);  and, 
alas!  against  schismatic  exclusiveness.  They  made  themselves 
respected,  however,  both  in  their  ability  and  their  Christian  tem- 
per, and  now  have  assured  a position  where  they  can  toil  with  less 
diversion  to  the  unwelcome  task  (see  Neh.  vi.  1—3)  of  withstand- 
ing sacramentarians. 

Mexico  City,  Monterey,  San  Luis  Potosi,  and  Zacatecas 
are  the  chief  stations  under  our  Board,  each  of  them  a centre  of 
wide  work.  The  full  details  concerning  these  stations  and  their 
related  churches  are  beyond  the  limits  of  these  pages,  and  may  be 
found  in  the  pamphlets  published  by  our  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 

Mobs  and  martyrdom  have  made,  painful  the  story  of  many  of 
the  outposts  of  our  own  and  other  denominations;  but,  as  far  as 
possible,  the  protection  of  the  government  has  always  been  afforded. 

Our  oldest  and  strongest  church  h at  Cos.  It  maintains  a vigor- 
ous and  augmenting  life,  under  the  care  of  a well-tried  layman,  Sr. 
Amador.  It  has  200  members;  a church  school  of  130  Bible 
students;  a boys’  day-school  with  60  pupils,  and  a girls’  school 
with  45.  It  has  a chapel  which  cost  $2000;  and  from  a printing 
press,  furnished  by  friends  in  Philadelphia,  is  issued  weekly  a 
bright  religious  newspaper. 

Fresnillo , Tampico , Toluca , Metepec , Capulhuac  (find  them  on 
the  map),  are  all  names  of  hope  to  our  laborers — landmarks  in  the 
geography  of  the  Church  yet  to  be. 

In  no  field  of  our  own  work  have  visible  results  been  so  rapid 
and  so  large  as  in  Mexico.  We  have  here,  to-day,  more  commun- 
icants than  in  any  other  of  our  ten  great  fields — 5031.  We  have 
also  23  native  preachers  (11  of  them  ordained  and  12  of  them 
licentiates)  and  13  native  woman  laborers. 

The  Rev.  J.  Milton  Greene,  leaving  the  pastorate  of  an  attached 
people  in  New  Brighton,  of  the  Brooklyn  Presbytery,  sailed  on  the 


1G 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OP 


1st  of  September,  1881,  as  the  latest  addition  to  our  force.  It  is 
intended  to  form  a Presbytery  of  Mexico  at  no  distant  day. 

The  roots  are  striking  down  and  out.  Churches,  even  in  deep 
poverty,  are  struggling  toward  self  help,  and  are  mutually  aiding 
one  another.  Modest  houses  of  worship  are  building.  Bible  asso- 
ciations for  common  study  multiply  apace.  The  law  and  order  of 
our  polity  (so  closely  knit  to  the  genius  of  representative  govern- 
ment, being,  indeed,  the  mother  of  it)  is  gradually  leavening  into  the 
natives  an  appreciation  of  deliberative  counsel.  Disreputable 
priests  are  forced  into  a more  decent  semblance  of  duty.  Their 
frantic  tirades  are  losing  their  power  to  stir  the  baser  sort  to  out- 
rage, and  in  very  self-defence  they  are  forced  to  pay  less  attention  to 
bull-fights  and  more  to  the  saint  calendar.  We  may  trust  that  many 
of  them,  in  the  new  sun-burst,  will  turn  from  dead  works  to  serve 
the  living  God,  throw  off  the  spotted  garments,  make  missiles  of 
their  missals,  and  rejoice  in  Him  who  alone  holds  the  keys  of  death 
and  hell.  The  day  of  decision  dawns  upon  them  all. 

Messrs.  Polhemus  and  Thomson  have  written  intensely  suggestive 
letters  in  the  Foreign  Missionary  of  August  and  October,  giving  the 
mingled  items  of  hope  and  difficulty.  The  latter  upon  a recent 
trip  baptized  thirty-three  adults.  These  children  of  a day  are  yet 
babes.  By  temper  and  habit  the  people  are  migratory  and  uncer- 
tain. The  climate  tends  toward  an  idle  tamper.  Even  in  religion 
they  demand  siestas.  Faith  without  works  and  enthusiasm  with- 
out consistency  are  the  tendency  of  this  volatile  and  impulsive  race. 

But  what  else  could  we  look  for?  Must  not  any  mighty  work 
come  by  process?  What  odds  are  against  brave  fidelity  every- 
where! There  are  bright  lights  of  exception  on  every  hand. 
Stability  is  confirming.  Eagerness  is  settling  into  bone  and  sinew 
of  character.  “All  things  are  possible  with  God.”  Family  prayer 
is  becoming  the  nursery  (in  that  oldest  church  of  God,  the  home) 
of  a better  generation.  Isolated  companies  of  believers  arc  inte- 
grating in  zeal  and  knowledge,  and  making  ready  to  exchange  milk 
for  meat.  Busy  in  wide  preachiug  tours  upon  donkey-back, — giv- 
ing constant  hand-to-hand  instruction  by  wayside  and  threshold, — 
talking  far  into  the  night  to  ready  groups, — our  missionaries  are 
sowing  the  seed  broadcast  by  all  waters,  “ sowing  for  time  and 
eternity  but  oh,  praying  how  fervently  for  “ more  laborers.”  At 
least  thirty  men  are  needed  fully  to  reinforce  our  present  stations. 

“ How  great  their  work,  how  vast  their  charge ! 

Do  Thou  their  anxious  souls  enlarge; 

To  them  Thy  sacred  truth  reveal, 

Suppress  their  fear,  inflame  their  zeal.” 

j “ Particular  attention  should  be  given  to  the  subject  of  schools 
for  girls.  It  is  in  this  department  that  our  mission  work  in 


TUE  MISSIONS  IN  MEXICO. 


17 


Mexico  is  most  deficient.  We  have  a good  corps  of  native  preachers, 
and  other  young  men  are  in  training  for  the  work  of  preaching 
and  teaching.  We  are  establishing  little  Protestant  communities 
in  various  parts  of  the  republic,  amid  surroundings  which  are  not 
only  ecclesiastically  but  socially  hostile  to  the  truth.  Woman 
everywhere  represents  the  stronger  element  in  the  religious  faith 
of  the  community,  whether  that  faith  be  true  or  false.  If  our 
preachers  and  teachers  are  to  marry  Roman  Catholic  wives,  they 
will  be  shorn  of  half  their  influence.  If  our  Protestant  families 
are  to  hand  their  daughters  over  to  be  trained  in  Roman  Catholic 
schools,  they  will  thus  surrender  the  very  key  to  the  social  life  of 
the  churches,  and  in  the  end  lose  the  ground  that  has  been  gained. 

“We  cannot  accomplish  a sound  and  permanent  work  of  evan- 
gelization in  Mexico  without  giving  due  attention  to  higher  female 
education.  We  must  prepare  not  only  wives  for  our  educated  men, 
but  female  teachers  for  our  village  day-schools.  We  should  estab- 
lish a female  seminary  in  the  capital,  with  a day  department  for 
those  who  reside  in  the  city,  and  a boarding  department  for  the 
daughters  of  our  own  people  who  live  elsewhere.  The  latter  should 
be  restricted  perhaps  to  those  who  give  the  best  promise,  and  all 
should  be  called  upon  to  contribute  as  they  are  able  to  their  self- 
support.” 

We  have  at  present  a day-school  of  sixty  girls  under  the  care  of 
Miss  Latimer.  Miss  F.  C.  Snow  is  now  on  her  way  to  Mexico, 
and  as  soon  as  practicable  a boarding-school,  uuder  the  care  of 
these  ladies,  will  be  established  in  the  commodious  building  lately 
purchased  by  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  to  be  paid  for  by  the 
Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  Philadelphia, 

This  must  be  but  a beginning  of  a deep  and  wide  interest 
throughout  our  entire  Church,  to  give  to  Mexico  a noble  woman- 
hood. It  cannot  fail,  it  must  not  falter. 

(b)  Next  to  our  own  work,  the  movement  now  closely  identified 
with  the  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  has  at  present  an 
important  claim  upon  our  attention. 

The  Rev.  Henry  C.  Riley,  a man  skilled  in  Spanish,  and  then 
the  minister  to  a Spanish  congregation  in  New  York,  was  sent  out 
by  the  American  and  Foreign  Christian  Union  in  1869.  He  was 
able,  by  his  special  training,  to  throw  himself  at  once  into  the  work. 
He  found  a band  of  men  and  women  fully  alienated  from  Rome, 
yet  of  strong  Episcopalian  proclivities.  They  were  at  that  time 
as  sheep  having  no  shepherd;  the  remnant  of  an  important  com- 
pany that  had  been  gathered  in  the  capital  in  1865,  and  ministered 
to  by  Francisco  Aguilas,  a devout  and  biblical  Christian,  formerly 
a Roman  ecclesiastic.  Though  dying  after  three  years  of  intense 


18 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF 


labor,  he  bad  begun  what  craft  and  envy  could  not  undo.  This  group 
warmly  welcomed  Mr.  Riley,  and  he,  with  all  he  had,  threw  himself 
into  their  cause.  With  ringing  words,  from  press  and  pulpit,  he 
set  himself  to  the  task,  beset  as  it  was  with  menaces  to  his  very 
life,  and  with  the  bitterest  opposition  of  a spirit  determined  to 
crush  him  out.  But  presently  a Dominican  friar,  Manuel  Aguas, 
of  high  honor  and  of  rare  gifts,  who  had  been  selected  as  a cham- 
pion to  refute  the  work  of  Mr.  Riley,  was  led,  in  his  very  study  to 
annihilate  the  inchoate  life  of  the  little  church,  to  investigate,  see, 
and  “submit  to  the  righteousness  of  God.”  Like  a new  Saul  he 
began  to  preach  boldly  the  faith  he  once  would  destroy,  and,  with 
the  great  strides  of  a regenerate  spirit,  stepped  to  the  very  front  of 
usefulness. 

With  great  power  he  gave  witness  of  the  truth  in  Jesus.  He 
shook  iniquity  to  its  roots.  He  challenged  Rome’s  idolatries,  and 
with  piercingly  intelligent  thrusts  combated  them.  But  like  a 
surcharge  of  electricity  that  in  its  passage  consumes  the  wire  that 
carries  it,  so  the  zeal  of  God  ate  up  this  fearless  advocate,  and  he 
died  of  intense  toil  in  1872.  Mr.  lliley  became  the  diocesan  in 
1869.  This  work  has  gone  on — not  without  perils.  More  than 
forty  martyrdoms  have  attended  its  advance — bloodshed  incited  by 
Romish  priests,  and  heralded  by  the  brutal  belfries  of  their  churches! 
This  work  is  now  in  close  confraternity  with  the  Episcopal  Church 
of  the  United  States,  and  under  their  large  assistance.  From  the 
first  it  has  had  peculiar  material  advantages.  When  Juarez,  in 
1860,  closed  the  Romish  establishments  as  “nuclei  of  sedition,” 
and  public  scandals,  the  immense  property  confiscated  to  public 
uses  included  many  splendid  churches.  That  which  the  great 
vampire  had  sucked  from  the  nation’s  veins  was  not  to  be  despoiled, 
but  guarded  as  in  trust  for  the  real  improvement  of  the  people. 
Three  of  the  noble  old  cathedrals  have,  at  nominal  prices,  been 
granted  to  this  branch  of  the  Church.  The  capital  is  thus  the 
centre  of  their  activity.  With  three  strong  congregations  there, 
and  some  forty  in  adjacent  regions,  they  have  in  all  6000  com- 
municants. There  are  two  theological  schools  training  young  men 
for  their  ministry,  one  in  Mexico,  one  in  Cuernavaca;  and  eight 
schools  for  the  young,  three  of  them  in  the  capital. 

With  the  valuable  results  won  under  these  Episcopal  foster- 
ings,  all  Christians  must  have  hearty  sympathy;  but  at  the 
same  time  we  must  frankly  and  firmly  protest  that  their  as- 
sumption of  exclusive  domain  is  a hindrance  to  the  common 
cause  and  a denial  of  Christian  liberty.  To  institute  'polity  above 
the  Bible  as  a basis  of  fellow  labor,  to  rebuke  any  who  in 
Christ’s  name  are  casting  out  devils, — this,  whoever  practices  it, 
is  schism,  and  no  presumptuous  claims,  certainly  not  the  vaunted 


THE  MISSIONS  IN  MEXICO. 


19 


sorites  of  an  exclusive  episcopacy,  can  evade  the  stigma  of  “ strife- 
gendering/’  They  are  the  “sectaries”  and  the  “dissenters”  who 
divide,  who  exclude,  who  reject,  who  make  human  traditions  a sine 
qua  non.  “ Boast  not  against  the  branches.  But  if  thou  boast, 
thou  bearest  not  the  root,  but  the  root  thee.”  This  for  every  one  ! 
Let  each,  loyal  to  his  own  methods,  honor  all  who  labor  for  God  in 
this  white  and  wide  field.  They  are  the  “successors  of  the  apos- 
tles” who  imitate  their  labors — they  only  Not  Esek  nor  Sitnah, 

but  Kehoboth,  is  the  well  of  salvation.  The  essential  unity  of  the 
body  of  Christ  consists  in  mutual  honor  and  care,  part  for  part, — 
so  “we  shall  be  fruitful  in  the  land.”  “ The  Church  of  Jesus  in 
Mexico’'  is  a Church,  not  the  Church.  Any  other  claim  is  insult 
to  Him  who  said  what  is  written  in  Mark  iii.  35.  There  is  room 
for  holy  emulation  in  this  great  and  open  realm  of  opportunity,  but 
none  for  envy.  Time  is  too  short,  Christ  too  near,  the  labor  too 
solemn,  to  quarrel  over  petty  shibboleths,  to  divide  the  common 
camp  upon  mere  regimental  jealousies  and  prides ! “ Have  we  not 

all  one  Lord?”  “Let  Jesus  Reign”  is  flag  enough;  that  let  us 
fight  under,  and  shoulder  to  shoulder.  But,  iamentable  as  it  must 
be,  they  who  would  spy  out  our  liberty  must  bear  the  charge  of 
schism,  for  that  is  the  erecting  conditions  of  Christian  fellowship 
over  and  above  the  conditions  of  salvation.  “ Peace  be  to  all 
THEM  THAT  LOVE  OUR  LORD  JESUS  CHRIST  IN  SINCERITY.  Amen.” 

(c)  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  also  made  rapid  prog- 
ress. The  northern  branch  of  this  Church  has  a well-distributed  and 
well-organized  force.  They  report  8 missionaries  ordained  and  5 
woman  workers,  17  native  preachers,  735  communicants,  and  about 
700  Sabbath-school  scholars.  They  have  acquired  valuable  church 
and  school  properties,  to  the  amount  of  $110,000 — a most  import- 
ant equipment.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South  has  two 
zealous  and  fruitful  missions  in  Mexico:  (1)  The  central  station, 
having  its  centre  in  the  capital.  This  station  reports  14  mission- 
aries, 34  native  preachers,  22  native  teachers,  55  out-stations,  34 
Sabbath-schools,  740  scholars,  710  commuuicants,  and  1 theolog- 
ical training-school.  They  issue  from  their  own  press  a monthly 
religious  paper,  with  a circulation  of  1800  copies.  They  report  an 
eager  demand  on  the  part  of  the  Mexicans  for  religious  reading  of 
all  kinds — tracts,  papers,  books,  Bibles.  (2)  The  border  mission 
of  this  Church  in  the  region  of  the  Rio  Grande  reports  13  out- 
stations,  24  schools,  502  scholars,  650  communicants.  During 
1881  this  work  has  made  a net  gain  of  25  per  cent,  in  all  directions. 
One  hundred  and  forty-seven  adults  have  this  year  been  baptized. 

( d ) The  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  had  a missionary, 
Mr.  Stevens,  with  his  wife,  at  Almalulco.  He  received  much  atten- 


20 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OP 


tion,  and  was  much  encouraged,  when,  March  2,  1874,  a brutal  mob, 
under  the  direct  instigation  of  the  cura,  broke  into  his  home,  and, 
having  plundered  it,  killed  him  and  one  of  his  converts,  with 
shocking  mutilation.  The  American  Board  has  a few  other  mis- 
sionaries— all  iu  western  Mexico,  *•  in  the  midst  of  wolves,”  facing 
constantly  the  bitterest  spite,  and  menaced  with  those  atrocities 
for  which  Home  offers  plenary  indulgence. 

(e)  The  Presbyterian  Church  South  has  at  Matamoras  three 
churches,  10  stations,  3 missionaries,  2 native  preachers,  2 teachers, 
and,  though  limited,  is  doing  an  effective  and  permanent  work. 

(/)  Matamoras  is  also  the  centre  of  a quiet  but  constantly- 
outreaching  work  under  the  Society  of  Friends. 

As  the  result  of  what  has  been  done  in  Mexico  during  the  past 
nine  years,  there  are  now  at  least  thirteen  thousand  Protestant 
communicants  iu  regular  churches;  and  this  can  only  be  a partial 
measure  of  the  influences  that  have  been  set  afoot.  That  such 
work  could  be  done  at  all  is  much,  and  that  it  could  be  done  with 
a force  relatively  so  inadequate  is  much  more;  aud  both  thoughts 
plead  powerfully  with  God’s  Church  to  meet  more  than  half  way 
this  nation  that  is  to-day  stretching  out  her  hands.  These  plastic 
years  are  the  receptive  and  fashioning  ones;  the  iron  is  on  the 
anvil.  It  is  the  hour  of  free  access  to  the  people.  They  are  read- 
ing everything  from  Voltaire  to  Benan.  Skepticism  is  becoming 
the  rage,  and  is  a most  curious  medley  of  fifteenth  and  nineteenth- 
century  errors:  we  must  carry  in  the  immutable  words  of  the 
Saviour ! The  Mexican  Sunday  is  a day  of  gala  and  folly,  of  noise 
and  traffic : we  must  carry  there  the  hallowed  Lord’s  day ! In 
this  foetal  and  fashioning  hour  not  only  something  must  be  done, 
but  everythiug!  Mr.  H.  C.  Thomson  writes  May  10, >1881,  from 
Monterey,  that  “few  fields  give  better  promise  of  permanently 
good  results  from  timely  labor.”  Now  is  the  time — the  time  to 
pour  in  forces  to  a new  Mexican  war,  but  not  now  against  Mexico, 
but  for  her;  not  with  carnal  weapons,  but' with  those  which  are 
“mighty  through  God.”  Now  is  the  hour  for  us  to  tell  pur  neigh- 
bors the  secret  of  the  great  things  God  has  done  for  us,  that,  desir- 
iug  to  copy  our  prosperity,  they  may  appreciate  its  foundation  in 
the  wealth  of  Iiim  in  whom,  richer  than  all  silver  and  gold  of 
Mexico’s  mines,  are  “hid  all  the  treasures  of  the  knowledge  and 
wisdom  of  God.”  The  guarantees  of  a noble  future  to  Mexico  lie 
only  in  the  sovereignty  of  Christ.  Oh,  let  us  hear  the  call  and 
heed  the  claims  of  God  for  that  country,  and  in  live  earnestness 
seize  the  hour  i Let  us  send  squadrons  where  hitherto  we  have 
sent  scouts.  Wanted,  recruits  for  the  army  of  Christ  Jesus  I 
“Who  will  go  for  us?” 


PHOTOMOUNT 

PAMPHLET  BINDER 

PAT.  NO. 
877188 

Manufactured  by 
AYLORD  BROS.  Inc. 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Stockton,  Calif. 


BW4457  .S92 

Historical  sketch  of  the  missions  in 


Princeton  Theological 


Seminary-Speer  Library 


1 1012  00035  3880 


